DRAFT SOP FOR RECONNAISSANCE ALERTS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP63-00313A000500020053-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 25, 2002
• Sequence Number: 53
• Publication Date: September 24, 1962
• Content Type: MF

Approved For Release 2002/08/20 : CIA-RDP63-00313A000500020053-7
Copy o
ORANDtJM FOR
Subject Draft, Attached
1. 1 am sorry to have vintaged your proposed draft SOP for this length
of time. but I have been ruminating on it and conversing informally with
members of the Staff in the interim.
25X1
2. My only basic concern is that I find it difficult to agree with the
premise which makes this Agency in general, and OSA-DD/R in particular, NRO
responsible for climbing down hirnney on peripheral recon- 25X1;
naissance flights which are his responsibility in every sense. In paragraph 1
you have in effect eliminated any need for the Watch Office to function on this
alert system for intentional overflights such as those we conduct. feeling cer-
tain. I am sure, that on these we will have our own responsibility to advise the
Director as we have always done.
or myself in the second on those matters 25X1
NRO
3. 1 am quite content to have be directed to gat in 25X1'
touch with the Watch Office in the first instance or o onel Ledford, Mr. Burke,
If he is directed to call us, we can. I think, assume that he will not do so until
he is fairly certain that he has a problem. If we are obliged to call him on the
basis of the Watch Office's interpretation of incoming information, it seems
quite likely that he will not know a great deal more than we do at the time of the
call. This is not to say that there may not be instances when this office may not
be the first to discover a potential fla in a SRC-s sponsored flight. If this occurs,
we, of course, would be glad to tell General Carter, the Watch NRO
Committee, and anyone else who should legitimately know this. 25X1
4. By wav of disclaiming interest in being the major source of informa-
tion on l I can only say that we do not receive all of
24 September 1962
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the NSA reports on his activities from OCI at the present time; we do not have
adequate press coverage, although we do enjoy FBIS and UPI; and we cannot at
this time run a continuous mission plot on from three to six hundred flights per
month, simply because we are not manned to do this nor do we have adequate
space in which to carry these reports. It is true that our Control Center is
manned on a twenty-four hour basis something like two-thirds of the year, but
this is related to the tempo of our operation and is not continuous. OCI mes-
sages from NSA do not now reach us on an out-of-hours distribution basis.
5. Perhaps I am just problem fighting this whole matter, and I have no
desire to shirk what is a legitimate responsibility to the Director, but knowing
our own manpower limitations, as well as the constant tempo of our own opera-
tions where we are the primary responsible party, I am hesitant to accept this
sort of responsibility automatically without at least some negotiation with the
Front Office. I might mention here that Dr. Scoville feels we should be the
responsible action party in this matter, so perhaps about all I can suggest is
that your and I get together to discuss this with
your preliminary draft in a finished draft form as the point of discussion.
J
,DAMES A. CUNNINGHAM, JR.
Deputy Assistant Director
(Special Activities)
1 -
2-
3 - DD [R
4 - DAD / OSA.
5 - A D / OSA.
6 - RB / OSA.
DAD/OSA.:JA.C, Jr.
ILLEGIB
Approved For Release 2002/08/20 : CIA-RDP63-00313A000500020053-7